Papertrey Customer blog hop June 2017

One last post for the day to squeak in before the blog hop ends. I admit I was short on inspiration this time. I tried to create a gradient with blue-green inks for the background, the shaker card uses clear acetate of course, as a nod to the glass jars in the photo. I like the other shaker card I made this week a bit better but some days are better than others!

Here is the inspiration photo:

And here is my card:

Stamps: What the Doodle, Waves Mini; Cardstock: Neenah solar white, teal, watercolor; INk: Ranger distress inks, variethy of blues, PTI fresh snow; acetate, beads, sequins, white embossing powder, buttons and stickles. 

Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Choose Joy ... New Challenge at Mustard Seed Faith

Good morning! It is time for a new challenge at Mustard Seed Faith and this week's hostess is Nancy, who has selected the theme of Choose Joy for her devotional. The point of her thoughts is that we have a choice, we can take action to choose joy.

That is true, isn't it? We may not be able to control our circumstances, but we can control our response to them. And the response is always or can be guided by the fact that our joy is found in our position as a child of God. There is joy in our salvation, joy in the fact that Jesus Christ paid it all on the cross for our sins. I don't always outwardly express joy, but it is always buried deep in my heart and I can lean on that when circumstances wouldn't warrant happiness. But joy is separate from happiness, because while happiness is circumstantial and fleeting, joy transcends circumstance.

It can for me however, be a challenge to remember that I can choose joy and that I have that assurance of salvation which brings joy. I am thankful for Nancy's devotional as a reminder that I need to make joy my choice.

For our challenge this week we can create anything that brings us joy. I just find great joy in creating or papercrafting so making anything usually provokes happiness or joy. I thought I would go with bright colors, playful images and sequins in a shaker card, to send to someone to bring a bit of joy into their life.

Thanks for looking and please visit our blog so you can play along in our current challenge.

Sstamps: Poppy stamps narwhal set; Ink: PTI snow white, soft stone; Paper: Orange Zest, blue scrap, teal, watercolor; Dies: My Favorite Things square stitched frame, PTI double ended banner; Other: sequins, glitter, prismacolor pencils, acetate, white embossing powder

Peonies for Pantone

Too many ideas, too little time! There are so many ways you could go with this. I decided to dress it up just a bit more than my last card and make another Pantone chip card for Make it Monday using a peony because...pink!!!

Thanks for looking and have a great time stamping! 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Pretty Peonies, Scripted; Paper: PTI soft stone, white, raspberry, watercolor, scrap of patterned paper; Ink: Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow, Fresh Snow; Tim Holtz Ranger distress inks of Spun Sugar, Forest Moss, Peeling Paint, Worn Lipstick; Other: white embossing powder, sequins, Spellbinders square die

Pantones Under the Sea

Always enjoy a good challenge and I found the one at Papertrey Ink intriguing for Make it Monday. I hadn't heard of the Pantone chip inspiration. You're supposed to take a single color chip and match the stamp color or decorative accents to that chip. I am fond of the color blue and fond of this whale stamp so I paired them up. I watercolored some cardstock and deliberately chose a spotty part for the whale because the whales I've been privileged to see on rare occasions have plenty of mottled color. Needed a few sequins, in my mind, for the sun reflecting off the water.

Thanks for looking. In case you come directly to this post and not the home page, I made another pantone chip inspired card using the peonies anniversary set with a pink chip, because...pink!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Keep Swimming, Dies: PTI Keep Swimming; Paper: Neenah solar white, scrap of blue, watercolor; Inks: Ranger distress Tumbled Glass, Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans, archival black; Other: sequins, wink of stella

I did find a few other challenges where this will fit, new blogs to me and some intriguing challenges and fine design team examples.

This would qualify for the following:

Deep Ocean Challenge #157: Die Cuts, Chipboards and/or Punches ... the whale is diecut
Crafty Critter Crazies...Just use a critter...my whale
Monochrome Magic ...Anything goes as long as it is monochrome
CAS on Friday ... Animals

Colourful Creations

Good day! I found a design team call based on a color challenge and I immediately tuned into the challenge itself and THEN went and looked at the design team they already have...looks like it  is for scrapbook pages. I make cards...hmmmm....
But seems like a fun team and they are open to applicants until June 20th. Here are the colors for their design team call at Colourful Creations:

The deadline has arrived and I haven't heard anything. So here are the cards I had submitted based on the color scheme. On different devices the last color on the right alternately looks either pink or red, so I used a bright pink on one card and red on the next. I did have fun coloring the owl in non traditional colors.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Paper: Neenah Solar white, PTI soft stone, blue, gold, scraps of patterned paper; Die: Papertrey Ink Gathered Garden, Hello, My Favorite Things stitched rectangle

Stamps: Lil Inker Designs, patterned paper, Kraft, Tim Holtz Ranger distress inks, ribbon

Back to card creating! Have a great day!

New Challenge at Mustard Seed Faith...worry much?

Good evening!

I have had a busy week and I am a day late in posting my card for the current challenge at Mustard Seed Faith. Design team member Tracy Fehr has written a beautiful devotional for this challenge, all about worry and how to hand our worries over to the Lord, based on Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying ‘What shall we eat?’, or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear’?  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

I have often joked with my husband that is worrying were an Olympic sport, I'd be a gold medalist, time and time and time again. I seem to spend quite a bit of my life training for this event. The sad thing is, it isn't a joke and it isn't God's desire for us to spend our days worrying. 

The worry is from the one who roams about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Worry devours our thoughts, our time, can impact our health and consume our days. When I get to the end of my life if someone created a pie chart or graph of how I spent my time, do I really want to see worry leading the pack? 

This devotional was a great reminder that I need to ask God for help to get my worry under control and really take Matthew 6:25-34 to heart. 

The challenge this week is to use a bird, butterfly or peaceful nature scene to illustrate the verse. This is my creation for this week. Thanks for looking and we hope you pop onto the blog at Mustard Seed Faith to read Tracey's devotional here. 

For my card I did an emboss resist stamping black floral and garden images from an old Inkadinkado set. I wanted to add a bit of dimension so I diecut some extra foliage from the Gathered Garden die set from Papertrey Ink and added them to the panel. I really didn't have a sentiment that fit in that corner so I added the diecut tags and I will write a message inside to this card's intended recipient. Have a great day! 

Stamps: Inkadinkado; Ink: Memento black, variety of distress inks; Paper: watercolor paper, Papertrey Ink rustic white, silver; Dies: Papertrey Ink Gathered Garden, Tiny Tags, My Favorite Things pierced rectangles; Other: clear embossing powder, sequins, silver cord, blue ribbon

Sunflower notecards

Good afternoon! Had to come up with a package for a yarn swap and we add little extras to fill out the package, like candy or tea. I know the person receiving this likes sunflowers, so I pulled out some stamps from Papertrey Ink and made a set of small notecards. Watercolored using Tim Holtz distress ink markers and backed them up with a bit of gingham paper. Thanks for looking, had fun making these.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Autumn Abundance; Ink: archival black; Paper: linen white, spring rain gingham, strathmore watercolor; Dies: PTI notecard die; Other: sequins, Tim Holtz distress ink markers